making travel more human

Tag Archives: Awards

Well… the folks in Portugal may not fully agree with that saying. In the last couple years the country started getting significant travel media coverage and awards. In the last few months alone the likes of AOL, USA Today, Condé Nast and others have placed Portugal and some of its hidden gems at the top of the ranks:

Portugal’s history has always been in one way or another associated with design. Portuguese designed maps to several regions of the world; they designed the special ships (“caravelas”) and some key nautical navigation equipment (e.g. nonius) used during the Portuguese Discoveries. Later, throughout its Discoveries period, Portuguese continued to adapt and evolve the design of many products brought from the new found regions (e.g filigree, China Porcelain).

When you plan your trip to Portugal, you may want to consider visiting cities and neighborhoods where you can ...continue reading →

Lisbon was recently named by CNN the Coolest European city. Porto’s been tagged as charming by many including The Telegraph. Which one do you identify the most with is an interesting question… but one you need not answer. It takes you little more than a couple hours to travel between both.

Lisbon
One of the oldest cities in the world, it’s pretty awesome that an outlet like CNN gave it the tittle of Europe’s coolest city. CNN based its assessment on 7 main findings:

Nightlife that can outlast Madrid's – “a roving nocturnal flow that ends (maybe) when dawn rises over the Tagus River”

Experimental cuisine – “once known largely for bacalhau (dried cod), quaint old coffee houses and louche taverns, now the trend is for modern, sophisticated and affordable”

Condé Nast named it the “2013 Destination of the Year” and Lonely Planet listed it as “best value travel destinations for 2014”!

The Jaunted Award (Condé Nast) for 2013 comes with a strong statement: “The fact that a city/town/country has been on the map forever in no way means that it has been discovered.” This couldn’t in fact be more true and ironic at the same time. For a country with centuries of history, which literally split the planet in ½ with Spain during the maritime discovery era, Portugal remains a hidden, unexplored, gem. This may change with so many awards and accolades.

We started WiserGo to help anyone in the world discover any region with the help of local travel experts.

As a young company, with strong connections to Portugal, we decided to test the concept first with Portugal and in doing so we ended up named one of the “50 Hottest Startups in Portugal”. Isn't that awesome?!

Anyway… more important than these awards, is that since we started a few months ago, we have received hundreds of trip requests and our local experts have planned and booked unique experiences for people from around the world. In the words of a WiserGo traveler: “Thank you so much for the awesome vacation you planned for us! (…) Paula was the best in planning us the trip of a lifetime... We look forward to working with you again in 2014.”